Days of Transcendence
by FT Lover
Summary: Jellal's always been a sort of wallflower without many friends, and he's been fine with that. But when he moves to Fairy Tail Academy, leaving his best friend Erza, whom he has mixed feelings for, things are going to change. Because down the hall is Lucy, a crazy but utterly one-of-a-kind mess in herself, and she is about to change his life. Based off Looking for Alaska. Slow JeLu.


**I know you're all going to kill me for not updating Sea of Runes or FTLG. I'm really so very sorry, but this idea just popped up randomly out of nowhere, and I felt like I had to put it down. This is kinda new for me, so please forgive my simplicity.**

**This is completely inspired from John Green's **_Looking for Alaska**.**_

* * *

"Jellal!"

I immediately turned my head towards the direction of the source of the voice of the caller—literally every time someone calls my name, it's a bad thing.

Except for when it's Erza. I've known her long enough to recognize her voice anywhere, which is something pretty special—even after all this while of staying here, every day seems to me like it's the first day of school. I've stayed long enough to know a couple of classmates—"friends", I suppose—that I hang out with just to get any unnecessary attention off of me (from my experience, I've deduced that rumors are demons and magnets all the same—they call way too much attention for the likes of me), but that doesn't help much.

"Erza," I replied, turning around to face the redhead, who was currently picking her way across the other end of the courtyard. I felt a wan smile spreading across my face. I couldn't help it; she was one of the most amazing girls I had ever met, and was bound to be the most wonderful friend I'd ever meet in my life (but you see, I was wrong, but that's another story to tell another time). She stopped in front of me and beamed, her face flushing slightly.

"Jellal," she repeated. She seemed rather out of breath, for some reason. "Is it true?" she asked, as to which I quickly responded, "Is what true?"

"That you're leaving in two days."

I sighed. Of course. I should've expected that she'd ask me that. "It is, Erza. Didn't I tell you at the beginning of the semester? You've been asking me that question every day for the past week now." I chuckled lightly.

Her face fell slightly, but she kept her smile, which had now turned thoughtful. Her downcast eyes stared up at me. "I'm sorry," she said, "but, Jellal, I-"

"Erza! Erza!" One of the female population—Hana Adachi, was it? Well, at least she was a friend of Erza's, probably—interrupted, her glasses bobbing up and down on her nose as she jogged up to the two of us. "You've got to come. These two guys—Wang Chanji and Joey, I think?—are getting into a brawl in classroom A105! Oh-" Hana's attention turned to me for the slightest moment. "You too, Jellal. It's almost classtime. I never took you guys for the type for PDA and sappy romantics, but it seems that I've been proven wrong." She made a face.

Erza turned beet red, and she turned back to me, giving me a sheepish look. I patted her on the shoulder as she shrugged hopelessly, and started walking off.

"I'll see you later," she declared as she was tugged away.

"Yeah."

* * *

"So," Ultear, one of my two roommates, commented, "you're leaving today."

"Mhm," I replied simply. I didn't feel like saying much.

It was one of those Sundays where you just want to laze around being a couch potato, but we all knew that for me, it wasn't like that. My other roommate, Meredy, took this opportunity to show up, sauntering out from her bedroom with a lollipop dangling from her mouth and a phone in her hand. She tapped the screen a couple of times and handed the device to me as I picked up a suitcase.

"Here, Jelly," she said, "your girlfriend sent a text to you. You'd better reply before she goes to find another guy to have laughs with."

"Meredy, she is not my girlfriend," I informed her, albeit uselessly. It's better not to mess around with two gossip queens. "Not. My. Girlfriend."

"Ooh la la," Meredy chanted in a singsong tone, "I didn't even say who it was." Beside me, Ultear giggled. I sighed.

"Okay, okay, I give," I said as she reached over and tapped on the message, before reclaiming it and reading the message out loud. She cleared her throat dramatically.

"Ahem- okay, Ul, look!_ Hey Jellal, it's me, Erza. Sorry I'm late; the car'll be here in a couple of minutes. -Erza_. Aw, and to think that I thought there'd be lovey-dovey stuff," Meredy complained.

"Gosh, Jellal. To think that even you'd get girls," Ultear remarked, shaking her head dramatically. "What has this world come to?"

"Jeez, let's just go," I grimaced, and started lugging my suitcase out of the door.

* * *

Magnolia in the summer was probably one of the stuffiest places I'd ever been to, and my new boarding school, Fairy Tail Academy, only had air cons in various classrooms and offices—and none in the dorms. I could literally feel myself getting fried as the four of us stumbled into my assigned room. Ultear wrinkled her nose as she set down a box, making a face while taking in our surroundings.

"Oh my God," she sniffed, "does this place reek or something?" She placed her hands on her hips as she started inspecting the walls.

I felt like I was suffocating just by standing there in the doorway, so I moved farther into the room. "I don't smell anything," I informed her. She raised an eyebrow at me and smirked.

"That's because it reeks of sweaty guys, like you."

I felt rather miffed. "Okay, Ultear," I rolled my eyes. "That was nice."

"I know," she replied. Behind me, Erza shuffled nervously. She had asked to come on the drive with us (I'd told her no, that's okay, but she had insisted—for who knows what reason), and hadn't said a word since the tentative greeting of "hi" she had welcomed me with as she drove up with her car. Seeing this, Meredy yanked Ultear back over to where we were silently standing.

"Bye Jelly," she chimed, wrapping her arms around me quickly, and withdrew. Ultear put her hands on my shoulders and faced me with a staredown, before pinching my cheek firmly and stating, "You're sweating and you stink. Take off that jacket, stupid." She ruffled my hair and skipped out of the room with Meredy, calling over her shoulder, "Call us when you can, baby brother! We'll give you time with your girlfriend!" Both Erza and I flushed.

I turned to the redhead after the two had left from our sight. Erza took a small step closer, and out of random instinct, I reached up and slowly tucked a stray strand of scarlet red locks behind her ear. Her head jerked upwards to look at me upon contact, and I quickly drew my hand back.

"Uh, I-I'm, I'm sorry," I mumbled, scratching the back of my neck, but she only smiled peacefully, blushing slightly.

"Jellal," she muttered softly, "it's okay."

"G-God, okay," I laughed awkwardly, only to stop as I noticed her eyes slowly welling with almost invisible tears. "H-Hey, what's the matter?"

"Jellal," Erza whispered, "you know..." She brought a hand behind my head and leaned her forehead against mine. "I don't want to let you go." She paused before slowly continuing, "I know you were never the type for presents, because you thought they were so complicated to get, with all the 'owing-people' stuff, but I just want to give you one last thing before I leave."

I was never good with girls and the like, but, to be frank, I could feel the world blurring and spinning as Erza ever-so-slowly, ever-so-enticingly pressed her mouth against mine. They say that with the first kiss, you can see fireworks, and that the world around you disappears; that's all true. Every single bit of it. Her mouth tasted of strawberries and cinnamon—a strange mixture, you see, but an absolutely perfect mixture—against mine. I felt like I should push her away—for goodness' sake, we were in the middle of a sweaty, stuffy dorm room (okay, maybe her condition wasn't as bad as mine)—but my arms seemed to have frozen in place by my sides. I made no move to push her away as my feelings and heartbeat went haywire.

It was all beautiful. All of a sudden, this world seemed so much more beautiful; like I hadn't spent all these years living in vain or anything like that.

And it seemed like the moment would last forever, when suddenly—

"Woah! PDA!" a new, completely unfamiliar voice burst out loudly, forcing us to unwillingly, but swiftly, rip apart.

And our beautiful moment ended.

I felt like glaring at whoever interrupted us as Erza and I both turned towards the speaker. In the doorway stood a smirking, shirtless guy—I noticed Erza blushing slightly through my peripheral vision—with a strange tattoo on his chest, bluish-black messy hair, and a grey cross chain or something. He grinned at our flushing faces. "Hey," he greeted casually, as if he had not seen us just exchanging mouth DNA, "sorry, dude. Did I interrupt anything?" He stretched.

Erza wisely chose to avoid asking where his top had gone. "Who are you?"

"Me?" the brunet raised an eyebrow, still grinning, "I'm Gray. Gray Fullbuster. Are you guys moving in?"

"Us?" Erza stuttered. "Uh, no! Nononono! It's just him."

"Oh, so you're the newbie," said Gray, "and you and your girlfriend were just giving each other goodbye sex or something?"

"Oh God no." Erza almost fainted.

"I'm kidding," Gray enunciated. "Okay, well, I suspect you two've been at it for quite a while now, and I saw two other girls in the parking lot—they glared at me, like what the heck—probably waiting for someone, so yeah."

Erza turned back to me and gave me another peck on the cheek. "Bye," she muttered at me. "I... yeah." She backed away from me—I resisted the yearning to reach out and pull her in again—and quickly left without another word, closing the door quietly behind her as she fled. I gazed after her, and probably would've continued to stare dumbly at the now closed door if my apparent roommate Gray hadn't interrupted by waving his hand in front of my face.

"Oi," he said, drawing my attention. He pointed at my abdomen. "You look like crap, so you'd better clean yourself up right now. You've probably already sweated up a puddle on the carpet."

I quickly took the hint and made my way to the shower.

* * *

"'Kay, so," Gray explained informally as we strolled through the halls. Apparently, while I'd been showering, he'd managed to find himself a plain white T-shirt to put on, which was honestly good enough. "At Fairy Tail, we hang out with who we like. But there are always precautions," he warned. The way he so casually referred to the school was rather shocking for me, but I didn't point that out. "It's pretty self-explanatory, really. The classes can be rigorous if you make them to be; but still, this school ain't half bad."

I nodded as we made our way into the cafeteria, where it was break because it was the beginning of summer, and classes were over for them. Everywhere we walked, one or two students would recognize Gray and slap him on the back or high-five him or something of that gesture. Students ran amok in the large hall, chasing each other like it was their life goal to do so. Groups large and small huddled around separate tables, gossiping, playing cards, or doing something random that I wouldn't care to stick my nose into.

"Gray!" A short girl with cerulean blue locks and a short, simple orange dress stopped as she jogged by to greet him. "Oh gosh, we've been looking everywhere for you! C'mon- wait." She paused to eye me. "New student?"

I had no idea whether I should continue awkwardly standing there or greet her with some random nerdy salutation, but she broke out into a grin. "Great!" She grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously. "Hi, I'm Levy! Levy McGarden. Welcome to Fairy Tail!"

"Jellal," I replied shortly. Seriously, I didn't want to screw anything up on my first day. I still have a standard, if anything, to keep for myself. "Thanks," I quickly added. Levy laughed.

"Okay, so you're quiet! I like you already, heh," she chimed, and dragged the two of us over to a table nearby that was crowded with people. Many looked up and welcomed both Levy and Gray as we neared.

"Who's that behind you?" asked a bossy-looking brunette with glasses and a strange magenta, fur-lined fan. It's not nice to make assumptions, but I could tell from the confident tone in her voice. "Newbie?"

"He's a MAN!" A guy with spiky white hair and deeply tanned skin cheered. Glasses Lady whacked him on the head with her fan. Okay, so she was violent too. I made a mental note to stay a little ways from her. Gray grinned and swung his arm around my shoulders amicably.

"This," he introduced dramatically, "is Jerard. Jerard, uh... Fernando?"

"Jellal," I amended uselessly. "Fernandes."

"Rightrightright. Jellal Fernandes."

A girl with short white hair gazed at me curiously. Was it just me, or did she bear some magical resemblance to that giant tanned guy? "He's rather cute," she remarked, giggling. "Sorry, I'm just saying." Beside her, another girl with dark blue irises and sea blue curls glared.

"Perhaps, but nobody shall ever compare to Juvia's Gray-sama!" she declared furiously, eyes shining. "Another love rival!" she glowered at me menacingly as she noticed Gray's arm around my shoulders. Many others glanced at her.

"So welcome, Jellal, was it?" yet _another_ white-haired girl—this time with long hair and a tiny pigtail right above her forehead though—in a kind of plum-colored dress greeted. I nodded at her. "Okay. Welcome to Fairy Tail! Do you have a girlfriend?"

Before I could say to her that no, I did not have a girlfriend—I wasn't planning to tell anyone about me and Erza's moment,_ anytime_—and please, don't ask that kind of question because I have nothing to do with girls and I am not a ladies' man, Gray cut in, "Yeah! And I saw them making out in our dorm room like, twenty minutes ago! Damn, newbie and a hot girl and PDA, all mixed into one. You guys should've seen it." The others laughed, and Long White Haired Girl squealed so loudly and excitedly that my eardrums hurt.

"No-" I started.

"Man, you are gooooood," a guy with a giant pompadour of hair atop his forehead snickered, thumping me across the back as we sat down in two empty plastic chairs. "Are you a ladies' man like Loke or somethin'?" A wisp of smoke drifted out from the pipe in his mouth.

"Gosh, guys, don't confuse the poor boy with all these names!" a barely-dressed brunette with a barrel of alcoholic material appeared next to us, and squished in beside me on the chair. She ruffled my hair. "I'm Cana," she smirked. "Do you have a girlfriend?" Gray burst out laughing.

"God, dude, you must totally be a ladies' man," he chuckled, "Lucy'd love you." I was pretty sure my brain cell numbers would start minimizing by the millions with all these names and people. My brain capacity still does have a limit, you know. Levy? White Haired Girl Number One and Two? Tanned Guy? Cana? Violent Glasses Lady? Crazy Blue-Haired Freaky Girl? Gray? Loke? Smoker Dude? Oh God. And now there was a Lucy?

* * *

I gulped nervously as I stopped in front of the door of Room 329, a small slip of paper clutched in between my left forefinger and thumb, and raised my fist to knock.

"Hey, who is it?!" a loud female voice called from inside. I glanced at my still-raised fist. I honestly believed I still hadn't knocked yet. I swallowed once more and opened my mouth, but the voice came again.

"Oh gawd okay okay, jeez. It's open. If you're Mira with my cake, Gray with my to-be-heard news, or Lisanna, Wendy, or Levy with gossip or whatever, come on in. If you're not, go the hell away because I'm goddamn busy right now!" the female shouted. Nervously, I turned the knob and nudged the door open. Inside, piles of books and randomized objects lay in messy piles in random corners of the walls. Various things like unclipped manuscripts, papers with daisies on them, and a couple of notebooks and pens were strewn across the white, carpeted floor. As soon as I stepped in, pushing the door shut with my heel, I tripped over an empty can of Red Bull and, unfortunately for me, clumsily ended up sprawled on the floor on my stomach. I cursed lightly as I hit the ground with a _thunk_.

To my right, the bathroom door was flung open, and a figure stepped out and padded right in front of me. The person crouched down beside me, and I found myself face to face with the prettiest blonde I had ever seen. She scrutinized me carefully, raising an eyebrow. To be honest, I felt like the dumbest person in the world just lying there, my eyes staring up at her as she leaned in closer.

"Who're you?" she demanded. "I haven't seen you around before." Noticing the note in my hands, she plucked it from my fingers, unfolded it, and started reading to herself right in front of me, as if I didn't exist anymore.

"OH MY GOD!" she suddenly shrieked. I reached backwards to massage my ears. She turned back to me. "So, who're you?"

"Jellal..." I muttered, planting my face into the carpet tiredly, and pushed myself up to sit on my knees, at level with her.

"I'm Lucy," she said. "And oh gawd, you were making out with a girl in your new dorm room?"

So much for first impressions. "I was not making out with her," I informed matter-of-factly, dusting myself down. How could such a tiny piece of paper hold that, I had no idea. Gray had given me the paper to go and give it to Lucy, and told me that I should take the chance to meet her too, since she was one of his best friends. _So much for a first meeting_, I thought bitterly. Lucy folded the note and tucked it somewhere into her bra—I flushed—and glanced at me once more. I suddenly started feeling very self-conscious.

"You're funny," she stated, like the thought had popped out of thin air (and I suspect that it did). "You aren't even planning on getting up, are you?"

"Oh, um," I said. "Why did you put the paper in... _there_?" I jerked my head towards the direction of her chest as subtly as I could manage without seeming like a pervert. Instead of slapping me across the room or acting all flirty after thinking I'd noticed her_ that_ area like any normal girl—from what I'd seen—would do, Lucy rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Because," she explained, "it's important to me."

I did not see how the logic worked in that, but I smiled a little uneasily along with her.

* * *

**Gosh okay. I am officially the world's worst person, and one of the worst writer's along with that, but I really do hope you all forgive me and tell me your opinion on this. :(**

**I've never written from a guy's perspective (and my stories are all in third person too), so I'm totally new at this. So sorry, once again.**


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